There’s a saying in publishing that you measure a book’s impact in two ways: how many people buy it, and how many people read it. There’s a similar saying in statistics: You measure a technique’s impact by how many people know about it and by how many people actually use it. One of the things I love about being a developer at JMP is that I get to make statistical techniques that might otherwise be difficult to use or time-consuming in practice accessible to a wide audience of users.

That is also why I’m excited to be on the committee for the American Marketing Association’s Advanced Research Techniques (ART) Forum that’s taking place next week in San Diego. ART is dedicated to bringing academics and applied researchers together. The conference sessions and format are designed to encourage discussion. In every session, academic researchers present alongside applied researchers who are working in industry. Post-presentation discussions from market leaders show how to work through problems that might happen when implementing a new technique, as well as how to analyze the gains from doing so.

The conference also hosts tutorials that serve as refresher courses for established techniques. This year, the topics include Machine Learning for Marketing, Knowledge Representation, Choice Modeling, and others. This makes the ART Forum a great training opportunity for people who are new to marketing research, as well as for experienced professionals.

Last year, when I attended ART for the first time, I remember thinking, “These folks are exactly the kind of market researchers I want to work with in this field.” This year in San Diego, I’ll be participating as part of the committee, and I couldn’t be more excited.

There’s still time to register if you’re interested in attending this year, and if you’re already registered, I’ll see you in San Diego!